Slang terms for money


Slang terms for money often derive from the appearance and features of banknotes or coins, their values, historical associations or the units of currency concerned. Within a language community, some of the slang terms vary in social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata but others have become the dominant way of referring to the currency and are regarded as mainstream, acceptable language.

Argentina

In Argentina, over the years and throughout many economic crises, several slang terms for money have emerged.
Seniors above 65 typically used "guita" to describe coins of a low denomination of cents, such as 2, 5 or 10 cent coins. "10 guita" is 10 centavos. The word "guita" in Lunfardo is nowadays synonymous with "money".
During the short period of the Austral, which replaced the traditional peso after the military junta, the word "palo" was used to describe a value to the "million" of australes or pesos, i.e. "2 palos" refers to 2 million pesos or australes.
During the government of president Carlos Menem, during the economic crisis, the word "luca" was used to refer to thousands of pesos, so "5 lucas" meant 5 thousand pesos. Lucas is a stereotypical male given name among Generation X in Argentina.
Another nickname for the singular peso is "mango", but it is considered redundant to say 35,000 "mangos" when it is equivalent to 35 "lucas". Furthermore, it is also considered redundant to say 1,000 "lucas" because it is equivalent to 1 "palo"

Australia

Current denominations

The five-cent coin is sometimes referred to as "shrapnel" as the smallest remaining coin in value and physical size. This nickname was inherited from one- and two-cent coins when they were abolished in 1996. Similarly related, "fivers" and "tenners" are relatively common expressions for five and ten dollars, respectively.
"Beer tokens" can relate to any denomination or combination of. This is also in keeping with the reverse, in which "bottle tops" can be used as an expression of holding, offering, or having a low amount of money.
One-dollar and two-dollar coins are also often referred to as "gold coins" due to their colour, especially at fundraisers.
A twenty-dollar note is called a "lobster" or redback because of its red colour.
A fifty-dollar note is also known colloquially as a "pineapple" or the "Big Pineapple" because of its yellow colour.
The $100 note is currently green and is known colloquially as a “watermelon”, but between 1984 and 1996 it was grey, and was called a grey nurse.
Modern polymer Australian notes have multiple nicknames and varying levels of usage dependant on location and socio-economic class. The notes most commonly receive their nicknames from the colour of the denomination. the $5 note is most commonly referred to as a "fiver" but also is sometimes nicknamed a "pink lady", or a "prawn". The $10 note is referred to as a "tenner" or again, less commonly, a "Blue Swimmer", other variations of this nickname exist such as the "blue grenadier", it may also rarely be called a "blue tongue", in reference to the Australian blue-tongue lizard. $20 notes are most often called a "lobbo" or "lobster", due to the red colour. By far the most commonly used slang for a modern Australian note is the $50 denomination, referred to as either a "pineapple", or a "fiddy". The $100 note is less common than the $50 note, and thereby nicknames vary a lot more, the most frequently used is a "watermelon", but is also referred to as a "granny smith" both due to the green colour, a "Bradman", in reference to Australian cricketer's 99.94 batting average by Sir Donald Bradman, or "melba", in reference to the late Australian opera singer on the note.
Australians also use terms such as “bucks” and “dough” for dollars.
In a Simpsons episode set in Australia, one character used the term "dollarydoos". A prank petition was later added by someone to Change.org in an attempt to change the official name of the Australian dollar, but it had no real support. This has often been incorrectly reported as a real attempt to change the name.

Former denominations

Pre-decimal currency in Australia had a variety of slang terms for its various denominations. The Australian threepence was referred to as a "trey" or a "trey bit", a name probably derived from old French meaning three. The sixpence was often referred to as a "zack", which was an Australian and New Zealander term referring to a coin of small denomination, probably derived from Zecchino. The term was also used to refer to short prison term such as six months. An Australian shilling, like its British counterpart, was commonly referred to as a "bob", and the florin was consequently known as "two bob". Similarly, one Australian pound was colloquially described as a "quid", "fiddly", or "saucepan", the latter as rhyming slang for "saucepan lid/quid". The five-pound note could be referred to as a "fiver", or its derivatives, "deep sea diver" and "sky diver".
A number of post-decimal denominations which have since been discontinued had their own nicknames. The two-dollar note was known as the "sick sheep" in reference to its green colour and the merino ram that it showed. The paper hundred-dollar note was nicknamed the "grey ghost", "grey nurse", or the "Bradman" in recognition of its proximity to the 99.94 batting average of cricketer Sir Donald Bradman.

Canada

In Canada, the one-dollar coin is known as the loonie. This is because it bears an image of the common loon, a bird.
The two-dollar coin is known as the toonie, a portmanteau combining the number two with loonie. It is occasionally spelled twonie; Canadian newspapers and the Royal Canadian Mint use the toonie spelling.
Similar to the United States, 5 cent coins are called nickels, 10 cent coins are dimes, 25 cent coins are quarters or two bits. Dollar amounts are all also referred to as bucks.
A five-dollar note is known colloquially as a fin, a fiver, half a sawbuck.
A ten-dollar note is known colloquially as a ten-spot, a dixie, a sawbuck, or a tenner.
A one hundred-dollar note is known colloquially as a C-Note or a bill.
Discontinued since 2000, the former one thousand-dollar notes were occasionally referred to as "pinkies", because of their distinctive colour.
Since Canadians and Americans both refer to their respective currencies as "the dollar", and because the two countries tend to mingle both socially and in the media, there is a lot of overlap in slang terms for money. However, this usually only extends to terms that are not specific to one country or the other. For example, both Canadians and Americans refer to a $100 note as a C-note, but an American might refer to it as a Benjamin, or a "Benji" after its portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
In Canadian French, dollar amounts are often referred to as piasses in the same way that an English speaker would use the words "buck" or "bucks" in informal settings. The word piasse is derived from the word piastre.

Czech Republic

A 5 Czech koruna coin is called a bůr in Czech, the CZK 10 coin is called a pětka, the CZK 100 note is called a kiloa reference to the kilogram, the CZK 500 note is called a pětibába a reference to the woman on its face, or a pětikilo, the CZK 1000 note is called a litra reference to the litre, and a sum of one million korunas is called a megaa reference to the 106 SI unit prefix. If someone has a large amount of money, but the exact amount is not known, people say je ve vatě or je v balíku.
All the Czech koruna coins may also be referred to with their value and the suffix -kačka,, such as: ''jednikačka, dvoukačka, pětikačka, desetikačka, padesátikačka.''

Eurozone

Since its introduction in 1999, a number of slang terms for the euro have emerged, though differences between languages mean that they are not common across the whole of the eurozone. Some terms are inherited from the legacy currencies, such as quid from the Irish pound and various translations of fiver or tenner being used for notes. The German Teuro is a play on the word teuer, meaning 'expensive'. The Deutsche Mark was worth approximately half as much as the euro and some grocers and restaurants were accused of taking advantage of the smaller numbers to increase their prices by rounding to 2:1. I, in Portugal the same thing happened, and often the term "Aéreo" is used, with the meaning of "Aéreal", the currency that flies away. In Flanders the lower value copper coins are known as koper or rosse. Ege in Finland and Pavo in Spain are also terms applied to the euro. In France, the term "balles" must have been missed as it came back for "Euro" despite the difference in value.

India

In India slang names for coins are more common than for the currency notes. For 5 paisa it is panji. A 10 paisa coin is called dassi and for 20 paisa it is bissi. A 25 paisa coin is called chavanni and 50 paisa is athanni. However, in recent years, due to inflation, the use of these small value coins has declined, and so has the use of these slang terms.
For larger amounts, 1 lakh = 100,000 and 1 crore = 10,000,000. These are considered technical units in India.
Also, the word Chillar is used for small value coins.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, the official term for money is uang, while the currency is rupiah. Common slang terms for money in Indonesia are duit, which usually refers to paper money; and perak for coin.
Apart from all that, there is cuan from the Hokkien language brought by the Chinese Indonesian ethnic group, which has become more popular since the 2010s. However, before that there are Hokkien term for nominal money since the 20th century as follows:
Amount
Name
50gocap in coin
100cepek in coin.
500gopek; in coin.
1,000seceng or ceceng; in coin
2,000noceng
5,000goceng
10,000ceban
50,000goban
100,000cepekceng
500,000gopekceng
1,000,000cetiao
5,000,000gotiao